Great Books of the Western World

Thoughts? Want some opinions on it. Might get the set if it is worth it.

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you will look like a pretentious twat

I own it and if I were you I'd read the stuff in English first because I have no idea how are any of the translations except for The Brothers Karamazov which is fair according to the thread I made on here recently. If I wasn't lazy I would post all the translator's names on here and ask if they're good or not.

Dead white males: the collection. Might as well save some money and just watch Fox news.

nigger mad that his race will never amount to what Whites created.

>what is egypt, carthage, etc.
Africa invented civilization while cumskins were still living in caves.

There is a lot to read and the set actually isn't very expensive considering the amount of writing that's available within the set.

These people are just buttmad that whatever they're reading aren't works that have literally been relevant for hundreds or even thousands of years, that have stood the test of time from the crusades, to the Hundred Years War, to the evolution of Gunpowder and Steam, to the exploration of the world and the miracle that is human flight.

These books have been read by kings, by philosophers and scientists, by people all round the world who learned from them in their own shaping of history.

These books were read and studied by the people who wrote the constitution of the US as well as the laws of whatever country they likely reside if its not the US. Honestly its arrogant and retarded to assume that the writers of your generation are automatically better to read because they aren't "Dead White Males". These books were selected because they were and have been relevant to human idea and thought for generations.

I'm not saying they are the only things you should read but I'd like to honestly here why you think its a waste of money or "pretentious".

I think a lot of the books are public domain or available online somewhere so you're basically paying $300 or so to have them
a) in physical format
b) all in one easily referable place.

I should note that the books do not have any sort of editorial or reading guide for individual works. There is however a book that organizes the writings based on their topic and relevance in "the great conversation"

I brought 2 volumes, the one with Aquinas' On christian doctrine, City of God and Confessions, the other with Hedorotus' Histories and History of the Pelloponesian war by Thucydides. The motherfuckers from the mail fucking lost the package or delivered to the wrong house or whatever the fuck...

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>implying the person who made that post isn't white

>Carthage
>Sub-saharan
It was a Mediterranean state

I feel like you should only read through these if you're also ready to refer to outside sources to help contextualize the books in terms of history and influence.

It has too many scientific and mathematical works that aren't really necessary to read nowadays when modern textbooks on the topics will serve you much better. The other books are fine, but you can find them all in better, more modern editions (especially the translations)

Oh also it doesn't have nearly enough poetry (compared to novels)

Honestly op I only recommend the synopticon from this series. They are worth their weight in gold. Best 35 euro I've spent in a long time. Full stop.

The rest is meh...outdated and better translations available.

This. I have the set and it's nice, but offers next to no commentary. I haven't read the
The Great Ideas I&II, and the Great Conversation though; I do understand the idea behind it, in treating philosophy as a continual dialectic and explaining context. Overall they're great, but you will need external commentaries and information.

I thought those said "garth brooks"

Go back to /pol/, you boring retard

When I moved from the US to Europe, giving up my collection was the hardest part of the move. I loved my third-hand 1951 edition. I bought the shitty digital version on sale but miss my set. The Syntopicon is a really fantastic resource in itself.

Here's what you do OP.
Get the first two volumes (Synopticon)

Then scour the web/bookstores for good versions of each book (Oxford editions are usually quite good) with good translations in the case of non-english books.

Dip into the synopticon for various topics, read the essay as a primer then read the passages mentioned in the references sections to see what others say on the subject.

This is not the only way to go, but it is probably the best. In all honesty if you actually do this for just 2-3 related topics you'll probably know enough as a PhD on that particular topic.

Post the full list, you faggot.

Google it, brainlet, it's not that hard.

>google it

Fuck off, shill.

All the translates are old and you can literally download them all for free.

Here's a more thorough post I wrote about this set 5 years ago:

warosu.org/lit/thread/S1663723#p1663750

I can't believe I've been on this shit board for that long. Good God.

Bad translation, terrible font and size, just collect them one by one user.

>All the translates are old and you can literally download them all for free.

This is an undeniable fact. But translates being old doesn't mean they are shit translations. Also if you want the set because its a baller fucking set its not very expensive.

You can get the entire set for less than a college textbook.

Also I hope all the people claiming they are bad translations are in fact qualified in judging whether they are poor in quality or not and have in fact read all the books, or at least samplings from all of the books to judge whether they are in fact bad translations.

>translates being old doesn't mean they are shit translations

Not always, but in this case, yes.
If you just want books to sit on your shelf, this is a good deal, no question. Some people prefer to read the books they have rather than make them a heavy part of the decor, though.

>tfw you got the 1951 set when your grandpa moved to a third world country

I have, in fact, read most of the books in the set. Before buying each, I sampled and compared different translations, including the GBOTWW set. Moreover, my classmates usually bring different translations and it becomes apparent throughout the discussion that GBOTWW translations are usually bad ones.

I mean I didn't pay for mine, they've been sitting in a trunk and I've started reading them. I'm not qualified to judge whether they are poor translations or not personally. Though I feel the integrity and study of the liberal arts has degraded over the last few decades, mainly during the 70's and beyond. The study of literature was undeniably stronger and more influential before it became flood with non "Rich Old Dead White Males" and instead flooded with drugged up youthful rejects that either act with a mind of rejecting the establishment out of infantile ignorance, or seek advancement and prowess by gargling the cock of their professors.

I mean the translations being bad is certainly a worry. But reading the works yourself without the guide of a professor or editorial afterthought is the better way to read the works. There is no reason why the works shouldn't be able to speak for themselves and speak truer more insightful words after every reading.

Seeking out some modern view or guide of the works is fucking retarded. You already have a modern view by growing up when you've grown up. They didn't write the books for 2,000 professors to regurgitate their words to the students. They wrote the books to be read by the common man.

>Overall they're great, but you will need external commentaries and information.

In the reading "guide" for the Great Conversation, eg, the list of introductory works and the order in which to read them. It will have you read a philosophical writing, then plays from the time period relating to that writing, then History, Science, and Autobiographical texts written from that time period by writers in that time period to provide context.

I mean no doubt it would be interesting to also read modern commentaries too but the entire idea is to read the conversation as it went on, as though the great works were speaking directly to you as another member of the conversation. You aren't intended to understand the works completely as you read them the first time through. Its meant to be a lifelong and continuous source of learning.

>They wrote the books to be read by the common man, so all the translates should intentionally shoehorn archaic, ridiculously outdated words so that the...er...common...man? can't read them?

You are too stupid to live.

The common man of their time period could read them. I hope that isn't what you mean by "bad translations". A bad translation is one that alters the text. If some old archaic word is the closest to the word actually used that should be the word used in the translation. Altering the words written so its easier to read while also undeniably getting a translated bias of the meaning of the text is fucking retarded.

Just google words you don't understand. If you don't understand the context of some words then you will eventually as you read more and more of the great works. You're actively choosing not to challenge yourself and become literate.

How this set vs the Harvard one?

The paper and translations are awful. Avoid. Only baby boomers buy this shit, and only as shelf decoration.

"Now nature has distinguished between the female and the slave. For she is not niggardly, like the smith who fashions the Delphian knife for many uses; she makes each thing for a single use, and every instrument is best made when intended for one and not many uses." - Aristotle

DID THE GREEKS USE THE TERM NIGGARDLY?

Harvard's got better paper, but the cheap covers crack off and more than a few works are abridged to make all the books uniform for shelf decoration (since thats the only reason people buy these). Translations are bad public domain shit, nothing different. There's a really good three vol poetry anthology in it, I'd recommend that one.

>Aquinas'
Those were written by St. Augustine you piece of subhuman filth. Why are you on this board if you don't even know basic facts like that?

>Aquinas
>not Augustine
literally kys my dude

I came into possession of two (first one was missing a couple)

I have the older ones with the brown hardcovers
the paper is shitty, especially the typography; it's condensed to roughly 4 to 3 pages worth on one page so it can be kind of demoralizing to read for so long and see you only read like 3 pages.

Also maybe because mine are older and from a semi-abandoned building, but they fall apart pretty easily, the covers and spine cover that is. Within a week of reading the front and back covers are hanging on by a thread but that's probably just mine.

Also all the translators are usually literally whos from the 18 century just because they were cheap/in the public domain I assume

A few are outdated science books that there is really no need to read other than novelty


good collection though can definitely make a good reading list but I would be wary of buying the whole thing desu

the paper is shitty, especially the typography; it's condensed to roughly 4 to 3 pages worth on one page

This is the biggest downside.

>read for several hours
>finish like 20 pages.

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